Vanderbilt Commodores

The Big Ten Conference was not considered among college football's elite for most of last season. Its downward trend had started years before, when leagues such as the Southeastern Conference, Big 12 Conference and even the Pacific-12 Conference had raced by what was thought to be a bunch of plodders with the help of quick-scoring spread offenses and defenses more reliant on speed than power. With Michigan struggling under soon-to-be-fired coach Brady Hoke, with Penn State still feeling the effects of the penalties assessed in the aftermath of the school's sexual-abuse scandal, even teams at the top of last year's regular-season standings, such as Ohio State and Wisconsin,...

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The Big Ten Conference was not considered among college football's elite for most of last season. Its downward trend had started years before, when leagues such as the Southeastern Conference, Big 12 Conference and even the Pacific-12 Conference had raced...

Megan Whittle (McDonogh) and Brooke Griffin (South River) each scored four goals to power the No. 1 Maryland women to a 12-7 victory over No. 11 Penn on Wednesday.
The host Terps (8-0) won 16 of 21 draws and outshot the Quakers (6-1) 36-13. Taylor...

When a college athletics conference introduces a new sport, it usually takes a while to get up to speed and compete on a national level. Not Big Ten women's lacrosse. It went from 0 to 60 in an instant.
With the two most successful programs in the...

Penn State's 4-0 start this season might have led some to believe that new coach James Franklin was simply putting the finishing touch on a masterful rebuilding job former coach Bill O'Brien started before he left for the Houston Texans after only two...

Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo didn't celebrate very long after his team's bowl win over Middle Tennessee State last December.
The preparation — at least mentally — had already started for the 2014 season opener against Ohio State in Baltimore.
"It...

Maryland baseball coach John Szefc paused and looked forward, trying to articulate just how special it was to be part of the Terps' first NCAA tournament team in 43 years.
Szefc was just 4 years old when Maryland lost its first two games in Gastonia,...

The Towson men's lacrosse team saw its three-goal lead evaporate in the fourth quarter and had to force overtime, eventually losing, 11-10, to host No. 14 Drexel in a Colonial Athletic Association semifinal Thursday.
The Tigers (8-7) used a 3-0 run to...

Attackmen Justin Ward (Old Mill) and Nikko Pontrello combined for five goals to lead No. 1 Loyola Maryland to a 10-8 win over Colgate on Saturday.
The Raiders matched the visiting Greyhounds with 35 shots and won 13 of 22 faceoffs, and Loyola (9-1, 5-0...

Freshman attacker Taylor Poplawski led No. 3 Syracuse (7-1) with a career-high four goals in a 17-12 win over visiting No. 4 Florida (8-2) on Saturday.
The Orange held the Gators scoreless for the first 15 minutes of the game while accumulating a...

Attackers Alyssa Ferro and Andi Raymond and midfielder Paige Duncan (Broadneck) helped keep No. 14 Towson close for much of Sunday's game, but No. 3 Syracuse finished with a 5-0 run to deal the visiting Tigers their first defeat of the season, 12-7.
...

The Ravens met with Oregon State wide receiver Brandin Cooks and Vanderbilt wide receiver Jordan Matthews at the NFL scouting combine.
Cooks ran the fastest time of any wide receiver with a 4.33 in the 40-yard dash.
The Biletnikoff winner and...

Host No. 6 Notre Dame scored four of the game's last five goals but its rally fell short as No. 14 Penn State won, 8-7, on Saturday.
Penn State (2-1) increased its 5-3 halftime lead to four with early third-quarter scores from Shane Sturgis and TJ...

-- From his prime vantage point Monday afternoon at Fairhope Stadium, Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome could watch the kind of wide receiver he covets.
The Ravens have identified a need for a reliable, versatile presence on third downs to...

When he was a Maryland quarterback, Chris Turner told a story of his phone once ringing at 4:34 in the morning.
It was passionate, intense James Franklin — an amped-up electron of a football coach for whom sleep is apparently an overvalued commodity —...

— Todd Bozeman never stopped coaching, even when it was clear that his Morgan State basketball team wasn't going to beat Vanderbilt Saturday in the second-round loser's bracket game at the Paradise Jam.His Bears never stopped competing against their...

Baltimore Sun reporters Don Markus and Jeff Barker and producer-editor Jonas Shaffer weigh in on three of the biggest topics of the past week in Maryland sports.
Given the way the Terps have played this season, would you be more surprised if they won the...

Editor's note: Each week, InsideMdSports.com provides this blog with a Maryland recruiting feature that previously appeared as premium content on its site.
Quince Orchard defensive end Adam McLean has seen his stock steadily grow in recent months,

I am in heaven. I know I am part of a minority, but I love college baseball the way most folks love NCAA basketball. Forget the Final Four, the Road to Omaha is what gets my adrenaline pumping.
And ESPN started the journey for viewers like me with an...

Joe Lustgarten scored the final two goals, including the game-winner with 55seconds left and an insurance goal 21seconds later, to cap a 6-0 run as the third-seeded UMBC men's lacrosse team upset second-seeded Hartford, 15-13, in an America East...